Life at a military academy is not easy. It isn't supposed to be. The arduous training takes promising young people and develops them into effective military officers. People like U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadets:

First Class Cadet Christopher Clifton of Palm Bay, Fla.

First Class Cadet Joseph Sullivan-Springhetti of Portland, Ore.

First Class Cadet Erin Talbot of Bolingbrook, Ill.

Second Class Cadet Kristin Euchler of Clarksburg, Mass.

Second Class Cadet Meghan Kalinowski of Mechanicsville, Va.

Third Class Cadet Mary Hazen of Yorktown, Ind.

Third Class Cadet Zachary Wells of Westerly, R.I.

These cadets were placed on the Board of Trustees Honors List for the 2012 fall semester, the most prestigious honors list at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

To be included on the Board of Trustees Honors List, cadets must earn three uniform stars for excellence in military, academic and athletic performance during the semester. This means a cadet must simultaneously attain a term grade point average above 3.15, be in the top 25 percent of their class in military performance and obtain a score of 270 or higher on the Physical Fitness Examination. Those who make the list are among the top 2 percent in the rankings of the more than 1,000 cadets who make up the corps.

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy, one of the nation's five federal service academies, is located on the west bank of the Thames River. Each year, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduates nearly 200 newly commissioned ensigns to lead the smallest of all the military services.

U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine have recognized the U.S. Coast Guard Academy as one of the top institutions of higher learning. U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks the academy among the top 20 Undergraduate Engineering Programs in the nation.

Erin Talbot is a mechanical engineering major and co-captain of the women's swimming team at the academy. She is planning on applying for Coast Guard flight training upon graduation in May. Erin attended Bolingbrook High School and the Illinois Math & Science Academy in Aurora prior to her appointment to the Coast Guard Academy.